Category: News Media
posts of articles on Madison Scott from the the news media
New Documentary may generate new tips (from HQ Prince George )
HQ Prince George aired an interview with Steve Scouller – A documentary film maker from Scotland who came to
Canada and filmed The Vanishing of Madison Scott
.
follow the link to the interview:
Watch the Documentary
Press Release: The Vanishing of Madison Scott
January 5, 2014
Dear Editor:
We are writing to ask your newspaper to print the attached statements to help raiseawareness of our daughter, Madison Scott, who has been missing from Hogsback Lake, BC since May 28, 2011. We wish to encourage your readers to watch a documentary that has been released titled, ‘The Vanishing of Madison Scott’. The film can be accessed by going on to the findmaddy.ca website
. It is our hope that through the viewing of the documentary and by reading the findmaddy.ca website that someone, somewhere will have information that will leadto finding Madison and bringing her home.
We thank you very much.Yours sincerely,Dawn & Eldon Scott Family & Search Team
The Vanishing of Madison Scott (Video documentary)
Steven F. Scouller is a documentary and awareness filmmaker who has produced a comprehensive awareness film to aid in the on-going police investigation into the disappearance of missing Vanderhoof girl, 20-year old Madison Scott.
Click on video below or watch on the Vimeo Site
January 5, 2014
At the time of writing this our daughter, Madison Scott, has been missing for 951 days from Hogsback Lake, BC. Maddy’s disappearance on the morning of 28th May 2011 has touched countless people and has greatly impacted our family.
We can never stop looking until we have Maddy home. Our family’s personal limitations in searching for our daughter have, from day one, been tremendously boosted by the diligent work, dedication and support of family, friends, community members and the RCMP.
We were approached by Steve F. Scouller, an independent film maker, who wished to make a film solely about Madison’s story.
Mr. Scouller’s background as an investigative filmmaker leads us to believe that this film will help in our concerted efforts to reach the right people and to encourage those who have the answers to step forward. We are grateful for the making of this film and wish to thank Mr. Scouller for his efforts in helping to keep awareness of Maddy’s disappearance at the forefront of people’s minds. We also give a most heartfelt thanks to all of you who appeared in the film and assisted in its production.
Please watch ‘The Vanishing of Madison Scott’ and please forward any information you may have on Maddy’s whereabouts to the Vanderhoof RCMP at 250-567-2222 or call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Dawn & Eldon Scott and Family
The Vanishing of Madison Scott
Produced & Directed by Steven F. Scouller
Raising awareness is of vital importance in the search for Madison Scott. Getting all the correct facts and relevant information out in the public domain is paramount. As an investigative filmmaker I set out to document the known facts that surround Madison’s disappearance by constructing a chronological timeline of events based on the facts told via first-hand accounts. It is my hope that this film will be able to assist the RCMP by raising awareness about Madison’s disappearance.
The film delivers an accurate reflection of the unfolding situation and documents the search efforts as well as the on-going processes in place that help to keep the search effort and awareness campaigns alive.
This highly impactive and emotional film acts as a central repository of key information that people can watch to get the facts quickly and effortlessly, allowing the steady stream of information to keep expanding out into the public domain.
It has been a humbling experience to work alongside Dawn, Eldon and their family and friends
. It’s amazing to see first hand the support the community has offered the Scott family and I am appreciative for the help that I have received from the people of Vanderhoof who have helped and supported me in making this film. I’d like to take this opportunity to express my personal thanks to the RCMP for their help and cooperation.
Contact Steven F. Scouller: stevenscouller@rocketmail.com
Letter by Dawn and Eldon published in the Prince George Citizen
November 19, 2013
To: The Citizen newspaper
From: Dawn and Eldon Scott & Family, Vanderhoof, BC
Re: Error in the re-printing of the letter sent to the Citizen following the October 2011 fundraiser and benefit for the Madison Scott Search Fund
We are writing to apologize for the error in the re-printing of the letter of thanks the Scott family sent to this newspaper following the October 2011 fundraiser and benefit for the Madison Scott Search Fund. While there has not been another fund raiser, we are greatly comforted by, and continue to receive strength from, the generosity of all those involved in the continuing search for Madison and the various events that have been held throughout the year to raise awareness of Maddy’s disappearance.
We again express our deep-felt thanks and gratitude to all the individuals, families, businesses and organizations who have given so much. As a family we have benefited greatly from the communities’ ongoing support. This support is a true testament to the communities in which we live and we as a family cannot thank you enough.
We are also grateful to this newspaper for its willingness to publish this letter so that we can reach out again to the many that have given so much of themselves and given of their time and effort in helping to find Madison.
Tremendous effort to find Madison is still being made in a variety of ways and we are hopeful that, through the perseverance, love, hope and faith of all concerned, Madison will soon return to us
.
Most sincerely yours,
Dawn and Eldon Scott & Family, Vanderhoof, BC
Vanderhoof-area event will mark second anniversary of young woman’s disappearance (from the Province Newspaper)
By Frank Luba, The Province May 21, 2013
Madison Scott, above, was last seen at around 3 a.m. on May 28, 2011
. Her pickup truck and tent were found at a campsite 25 kilometres southeast of Vanderhoof. — Submitted photo
What happened to Madison Scott remains a sad mystery, almost two years after the Vanderhoof woman disappeared after camping at Hogsback Lake, 25 kilometres southeast of her hometown.
Family, friends and the general public are being invited to a search of the area Saturday, May 25, which is as close as possible to the May 28, 2011 weekend when the 20-year-old went to a party and was last seen at around 3 a.m.
Her off-white, early 1990s Ford F-150 pickup and two-tone blue tent were left at the lake but, despite an extensive search, no other trace was ever found of Scott, who is Caucasian, stands 5-foot-4, weighs 170 pounds and has ginger-coloured hair.
Saturday’s search is the second On The Trail to Find Maddy Poker Ride, which is a competition divided into divisions for walkers, quad all-terrain vehicles and horses who go through checkpoints to assemble poker hands.
Wayne Woods, one of the event’s organizers and a friend of Maddy’s parents Eldon and Dawn Scott, said the area has been searched extensively already, “but everyone is asked to keep their eyes open” for any clues.
The event is more about keeping the hunt for Maddy in the public’s awareness, according to Woods.
“The message we’re trying to get out there is that if anyone has any information — we’re just trying to keep it foremost in people’s minds — that they need to come forward with it,” said Woods.
“Even if it’s a small detail, it can turn into something relevant,” he said. “We haven’t given up hope that she’ll be found and we’re not going to stop looking.”
While the area is remote, it’s not immune to problems — but not like Maddy vanishing.
“Things have happened, for sure,” conceded Woods. “But not like this, where there’s been just no answers at all.”
Her disappearance is still a concern for the community.
“In a small town, normally when something happens you hear rumours and people talk, and what not,” said Woods. “But there just hasn’t been a whisper about anything about Madison.
“It’s like she disappeared and no one knows anything,” he said.
The family offered a reward of $15,000, which was increased to $25,000 and is now at $100,000.
A video re-enactment of the story was done by RCMP, and Maddy’s disappearance was included in a documentary on the Highway of Tears, the route between Prince George and Prince Rupert along which 18 women have gone missing or been murdered.
Maddy was even part of CBS television’s 48 Hours focus on the Highway of Tears, although Woods said neither the family nor police believe she is part of that tragedy.
2 found dead in northern B.C. (from CBC)
Original article at CBC News Posted: Jan 14, 2013 6:21 AM
Mounties in Vanderhoof, B.C, are considering the deaths of two northern B.C
. residents suspicious.
The bodies of the two victims were found in a Vanderhoof home on Sunday.
“RCMP have secured the residence as a crime scene and the investigation is ongoing,” said Const. Lesley Smith.“We’re in the very early stages of this investigation so there’s still trying to find out what happened inside the residence.”
The victims have been identified as Blaine Albert Barfoot, 29, and Tara Lee Ann Williams, 40.
RCMP Const. Lesley Smith said they were well-known to local police and lived a “high-risk lifestyle.” Barfoot had a criminal record, including several assault charges.
But at this point, police don’t believe these deaths are connected to any other recent unsolved cases in the community, said Smith.
“There is nothing to suggest that any of the other cases, as tragic as they are, are linked in any way,” Smith said.
Less than a month ago, a 19-year-old woman was fatally shot in Vanderhoof. No charges have been laid in that incident.
The town of about 4,000 residents is also still grappling with the death of 28-year-old Fribjon Bjornson last year, and the disappearance of 20-year-old Madison Scott in 2011.
18 Months Since Madison Scott’s Disappearance (from HQ Prince George)
Original article at HQ Prince George
Monday, December 3, 2012 – 4:52 PM
By Jeff Sargeant
Prince George, BC
It’s now been a year and six months since the disappearance of Madison Scott from a party at Hogsback Lake.
The 20-year old Vanderhoof woman has not been seen since May 28th, 2011, and there have been no solid leads on her whereabouts despite a massive campaign for tips.
RCMP Sergeant Rob Vermeulen says the case remains very much active.
“The investigation into the disappearance of Madison Scott remains ongoing
. There’s been a lot of publicity on the case, which is great, including international publicity. We continue to follow up on any tips that do come in.”
Vermeulen says even though it’s been 18 months since Scott was last seen, every tip is incredibly important for investigators.
He says police should be made aware of anything remotely related to the case and urges the public to call Vanderhoof RCMP, your local detachment, or Crime Stoppers.
American TV turns up volume on “Tears” cases (from Prince George Citizen)
From the November 20th Prince George Citizen:
A story on the Highway of Tears by popular U.S. crime show 48 Hours has generated a few tips, says the leader of an RCMP task force investigating the cases of 18 missing and murdered women. The response has fallen well short of the reaction generated when RCMP announced in September that DNA evidence had linked an American man, Bobby Jack Fowler, to one murder. He is also believed to be behind two others committed in the 1970s, said Staff Sgt. Wayne Clary. However, Clary said he has not yet checked with a phone line set up in the United States for similar
tips since the episode was aired Saturday night. Fowler, who died in 2006 in an Oregon prison, was prominently depicted in the show. “what I’m going to do is I’m going to let the dust settle a little bit and I’m going to call my Oregon counterpart and see if anything kind of shook out there,” Clary said Monday.
Although the Highway of Tears is generally regarded as the stretch of Highway 16, also known as the Yellowhead Highway, from Prince George to Prince Rupert, 720 kilometres to the west, Fowler’s alleged victims were found near Clearwater and Lac La Hache and in Kamloops.
Clary’s task force, Project E-Pana, is investigating 18 cases of women determined to have gone missing or murdered within a mile of Highways 16, 97 and 5, between Valemount and Merritt. In 2009 The Vancouver Sun expanded the criteria beyond the one mile limit to come up with 31 cases. In addition to the E-Pana investigations, the episode also looked at the May 2011 disappearance of Madison Scott from the Hogsback Lake campground, 25 kilometres southeast of Vanderhoof, and the four women for which Cody Alan Legebokoff is now facing murder charges
. “There was a lot to chew off in hour,” Clary said. There is a lot more detail, from my perspective, that could have been put into it and particularly from our investigation, E-Pana, but then again I don’t produce these shows and I’m sure they have to pick and choose what goes in there. But what came out of it was that the police are actively investigating, that we care, and we still obviously want to solve not only the Fowler cases but anyone of them that we’re investigating.”
Clary also said the show did help highlight dangers women murder can face not just in B.C. but in North America and around the world, particularly if they’re hitchhiking.
One aspect of the show did not sit well with the Scott family namely a claim that Fribjon Bjornson, the victim of a murder in February in Fort St. James, was involved in Madison Scott’s disappearance. “We want to clarify that he was not responsible for her disappearance or involved in a relationship with Maddy when she went missing,” the family said in a posting on www.madisonscott.ca. “There is no connection between the two cases.”
48 Hours also relied on two year-old statistics, when the city was ranked seventh for violent crime, to describe Prince George as “crime riddled.” The picture has since improved due mostly to a drastic drop in the murder rate, although the city was still ranked 14th out of 239 communities in 2011 according to Statistics Canada.
Clary, meanwhile, noted they neglected to air the phone number for the E-Pana tip line: 1-877-543-4822.
48 Hours hurts city’s reputation (from Prince George Citizen Newspaper)
From the Prince George Citizen newspaper editorial from Monday November 19th 2012.
The crime-ridden city of Prince George
.
That’s how the CBS newsmagazine show 48 Hours introduced its viewers to this city Saturday night, during its hour-long feature on the so-called Highway of Tears and the murder of area women over the last 40-plus year.
No context, no explanation, nothing. Just a label
That description also explains some of the sketchy reporting in the program. The program featured a summary of every-thing everyone following the case through coverage in this newspaper and other B.C. media already knew while ignoring some things that didn’t fit the narrative.
In their story, Highway 16 is the only roadway that defines the Highway of Tears so when the 48 Hours story got to the Bobby Jack Fowler “development, it glossed over the fact that the one confirmed Fowler victim and the two other women he may have killed in the same time I period, were killed on Highway 97 between here and Kamloops. To then ask viewers to talk to the reporter through social media and share details about the case when the program couldn’t even bother to line up the facts seems a little two-faced.
Not only has the link with Fribjon Bjornson and Madison Scott been completely discredited by investigators (so why bring it up on the show except to insinuate Vanderhoof residents think the cops are wrong about that with no evidence to back up that assertion?) 48 Hours neglected to mention last month’s development in the Bjornson case. A story making the rounds in Fort St. James is that Bjornson, with several thousand dollars of cash in his pocket after cashing a pay cheque, gave someone a ride to a house party on the Nak’azdli reserve, where he was attacked, killed and dismembered. His body parts were dumped into Stuart Lake, the story goes, but somebody left Bjorn’s head in the house, which police searched after finding Bjornson’s truck nearby. To be fair, the program did feature heartfelt interviews with the parents of Maddy Scott and the father of Loren Dawn Leslie, 15, one of the alleged victims of Cody Legebokoff. Except for the cheap shot about the link between Bjornson and Scott, RCMP investigators were portrayed as smart, diligent and passionate.
Through some break taking aerials shots and some clever camera work, the region looked gorgeous but also somewhat sinister, a land of endless opportunity for killers looking to seize vulnerable women and dump their bodies where they would be unlikely to ever be found. Any reporting on the Highway of Tears case is good reporting, in that it keeps the dangers of hitchhiking in Northern B.C. on the top of everyone’s mind. And the show’s emphasis on the Madison Scott case in the first third of the program might trigger someone’s memory, sparking a break in the case, but glossing over some of the complexities and uncertainties of the case isn’t exactly helpful.
While it’s not the job of 48 Hours (or Dateline-NBC, which has also had a producer sniffing ‘around for a feature story) to promote Prince George, summing up Prince George as crime ridden added nothing to the Highway of Tears story. IT was nothing more than a ridiculous, back handed slur, suggesting this is a dangerous part of the world to live and raise a family. If it takes that kind of nonsense to help find Madison Scott or solve the disappearances and murders of some of the other women, we’ll take the “crime-ridden” tag all day long. But it doesn’t mean we have to like it.
– Managing editor Neil Godbout, Prince George Citizen